


Confrontation

by TooAttachedToDelete



Series: Dan and Phil One Shots [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: But not by our boys, Hurt/Comfort, If You Squint - Freeform, Light Angst, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Sexual Harassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 14:24:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15172622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TooAttachedToDelete/pseuds/TooAttachedToDelete
Summary: Phil has never been one for confrontation, but seeing all the horrible things that have been happening in the world, he begins to wonder if not speaking up can be seen as not caring.





	Confrontation

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired to write this by how I've been feeling lately. I'm not going after Phil for not being an activist because I'm not a confrontational person at all and recently I've been questioning myself on what my duty as a person is and how to support and defend others. 
> 
> I wanted to deal with how scary it is to stand up for someone and to someone and also show Phil having the courage to do it anyway.

Phil has always been non-confrontational.

In the past he chalked it up to many things. An eagerness to please, social anxiety or just plain old fear. 

It didn’t even have to be in person confrontation either. 

While Dan would publicly and loudly discuss what was wrong in the world, going off about homophobia, gender roles or general world suck, Phil...just didn’t.

Not that he felt any less strongly than Dan, he just felt like his channel could be used for different things. 

People needed to vent, but they also needed an escape. Phil wanted to be that escape. 

It wasn’t that the world couldn’t be horrible, but for about 10 minutes, his viewers wouldn’t have to deal with it.

And so neither did he. 

For years he felt like this was just fine, that he and Dan were almost like a double act. Dan would confront and Phil would distract and together they helped their audience face an often cruel and corrupt world.

Eventually, things changed.

Even his most politically active friends started to show fatigue.

Even Dan. 

“I’m torn between ‘wanting to stay informed’ and ‘wanting to stay sane’ sometimes, you know?” Dan had said once, after reading some horrible news story or another.

But Phil was going the complete opposite way. 

The way the world had become in 2018 left him wondering if being a distraction was enough.

He never would have believed that people in 2018 could believe certain ways, and do certain things. That equal rights for everyone wasn’t just the norm. 

Phil always figured that his audience should know his feelings on certain things. That he didn’t believe in discriminating against anyone. That you shouldn’t make fun of someone for things they couldn’t change. That love was love.

But those things weren’t the norm for everyone and more and more Phil was seeing posts on Twitter and Tumblr talking about how if you didn’t vocally stand up against something, you were showing your support for it. 

He didn’t want to support hurting other people. He wanted to stand up for what he believed in. He wanted to protect others. But he was so very afraid. He had never been confrontational and the very thought made his palms sweat. 

 

After a convention, he got his chance. He and Dan had just boarded a bus and were looking for a place to sit that was as secluded as they could get on crowded public transport, when they spotted them.

A petite young woman was sitting in a corner, trying to shield her body with an overly large bag. A man was sitting next to her and every so often invading her space. From their body postures alone, hers scared and small and his invasive, both Dan and Phil could see that something was definitely wrong.

As they got closer they could hear their conversation. 

“Come on baby, let me have your number. I’m not askin’ for too much here.”

The woman bit at her lip and nervously played with her hands.

“I...I’d rather not.”

“It’s just your number. I think we’d get along great, if we got to know each other.”

She shook her head a bit. “I...I’m flattered but no thank you. I just met you.”

The man smiled at this. “That’s why you should give me your number, so we can get to know each other better. I bet we’d get along really well. I knew as soon as I saw you we’d have great chemistry.” Then he touched her thigh.

The woman froze and so did Dan and Phil.

Phil turned to look at Dan, who’s body was stock still but he had a look in his eyes that Phil knew so well.

It was anger and righteousness. Disgust and determination. He wasn’t gonna let this continue, not on his watch. 

He started to move.

“Don’t you think we should just get the authorities?” Phil asked, putting a palm on Dan’s chest to stop him. 

Dan scoffed at that and said “And how long will it take them to get here? How long will she have to be cornered by that disgusting pile of garbage?”

The garbage in question finally removed his hand and the girl purposefully crossed her legs tighter. 

“Sweetheart please, I’m not dangerous. If you just got to know me you’d see that I’m really sweet. I’m positive we’d have a great time.”

Dan actually wrinkled his nose at that. Phil could feel the rage coming off of him.

Phil’s hands shook and his stomach dropped. Any other time he’d let Dan handle this. Dan was the one who confronted. Dan was the one that faced the bullshit head on and tried to take it down. Dan was the one that handled these things.

Even when it was Phil’s personal fight. Phil wouldn’t even defend himself, instead choosing to ignore it and move on. 

But this felt different. He had distracted and ignored for too long. 

For at least once in his life, he’d have to confront.

“Alright Dan, you go find the authorities, I’ll make sure she’s OK.”

Dan tilted his head at that. “Are you sure Phil that’s not...that’s not really your thing. Are you sure you can do this?”

Phil sighed. “I don’t really want to but like...I feel like I have to. Plus I can feel the rage coming off you from here and it might just make things worse.”

Dan looked back at the man and woman and then to Phil. He patted Phil’s shoulder and turned to leave.

“Just...be careful alright?”

Phil nodded and forced himself forward. He blatantly ignored the man and held out a hand to the woman. 

“Hi. I’m Phil. Boy it sure looks crowded over here. I saw a spot a few rows back if you’d like that better. I was gonna sit there myself but you look so sardined in here that I figured I should offer it to you first.”

The woman looked from Phil to the man beside her and back. 

“I’m...” she looked at the man beside her again.

Phil thought he knew what she was thinking. She didn’t want to give the man beside her her real name. He looked down to see that her big red bag had pins on them. Some of which were Youtube centric.

“Oh wait!” Phil said, lightly smacking his head with his palm. “You’re Amy right? Didn’t I meet you at the Youtube convention yesterday?”

She started to shake her head and then thought better for it.

“Oh my god Phil? How could I forget! It’s so good to see you again.”

“Wasn’t that greeting area something? I’ve never been so sweaty. That many people shouldn’t be in one place.”

The man looked at Phil and got up. Phil finally looked at him and felt a moment of panic. He was shorter than Phil, because a lot of people were shorter than Phil but he was stockier too. 

The man wore a tank top with the arm holes cut deeper, showing off very well toned arms. He could easily get rid of anyone in his way.

And Phil was in his way. 

Phil took an involuntary step back and felt goosebumps creeping up his arms. Then he looked at the woman again. She looked up to him with a smile, relief clearly on her features. 

So Phil stepped forward again.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Can’t you see we were having a conversation?”

Phil smiled and tried to seem as nonthreatening as possible. “Well from what I heard, you were talking and she was telling you to leave her alone.”

The man’s eyes narrowed at that. 

“You were listening to our conversation? Listening on things that are none of your fucking business?”

Phil put his hands up to say “I’m no threat” and then tried to speak calmly. “Yes and more than once she told you to leave her alone so I figured the conversation was basically over.”

“She’s just playing hard to get is all. You’ve gotta be persistent with women.”

Phil didn’t get angry like Dan. He didn’t have to fight the urge to scream at injustice. Instead he just felt sad. 

Because there were so many people like this out there.

He tried to make the man see reason. “Listen, you’ve been told no. Things would be much easier if you’d accept that and move on. There’s no reason for this to get nasty, alright?”

The man stepped forward toward Phil and Phil dug his nails into his hands fighting the urge to back away,

“So a man can’t talk to a woman now? Is that how things are?”

“Talking is fine but harassment, not so much.”

The other man scoffed at this and looked back at the woman. “What harassment, can’t you see she’s fine. All we’ve been doing in talking, isn’t that right sweetheart?” 

The woman looked back and forth between Phil and her harasser. She was clearly terrified.

Phil wanted to tell her that she had no reason to be afraid. That she could tell the truth and the man would be forced to leave her alone.  
But he couldn’t. 

“Hey Amy, why don’t you give us a minute? I think it’d be good if we all got some fresh air and calmed down.”

The woman Phil called Amy stood up quickly, on shaky legs and took a few steps away from the man when he grabbed her arm and forced her back into her seat. She sprawled down, skirt akimbo and quickly tried to adjust it.

“You don’t just fucking try to come between me and a woman and think I’m gonna let that happen. If anyone’s gonna leave it should fucking be you!”

Phil pointed to “Amy”, who was shaky and rubbing at her arm where he’d grabbed it.

“Can you say that that was just talking? Because it looked like abuse to me.”

The man laughed out loud. “I grabbed her arm and you’re calling it abuse? You have no fucking idea what abuse is! That’s what’s wrong today, you know? Anything you do is called abuse. A man can’t fucking breathe near a woman without it being called abuse.”

Phil sighed. You really couldn’t reason with garbage. 

“Please, why don’t you just leave, you’re causing a scene you know? You could still have a tiny part of dignity left, You still have a chance to not be complete garbage.”

The man stepped closer to Phil.

“What the fuck did you call me?”

Any other day, any other time, Phil would have run from this. He wasn’t confrontational. And he certainly didn’t smart off to angry body builder types. 

But apparently today was different. 

“I called you what I’d call anyone who wouldn’t take no for an answer, garbage.”

Phil only really felt the first punch. 

 

A couple hours later Dan and Phil were getting ready for a liveshow. Word of what happened got out quickly and they couldn’t let their audience’s minds wander, because they were a very imaginative bunch. 

“Are you ready Phil?” Dan asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Dan got ready to make it live before Phil shouted “wait!”

“What?” 

“I think we should warn them first. They’ve never really seen either of us hurt like this. You know they’re gonna freak out.”

“So what do you suggest?”

Phil bit at his bottom lip and then flinched. Somewhere in the assault his lip had busted open.

“Let’s start the stream with just you and then let them know that it’s gonna look bad but I’m gonna be ok and then show them.”

Dan sighed. “Alright” and turned the computer to face him.

“Hey guys. So you’ve probably heard a lot of things about what happened today. Some just fucking bizarre. So just for today we’re gonna answer your questions on it. Before I show you Phil, you have to know that it looks pretty fucking scary.”

Dan turned to look at Phil and shuddered. Phil’s right eye was swollen and black to the point where it barely looked like an eye. His bottom lip was split down the middle and the rest of his face was peppered with various bruises. 

When Dan came back with some police officers and saw Phil being assaulted, his body seemed to react faster than his brain. 

He almost broke out into a run, his only thought to show that motherfucker that he couldn’t hurt his Phil that way, when he felt himself grabbed from behind.

“You don’t wanna do that man,” The officer said in his ear. “Let us handle this.”

His body again tried to act without clear thought and Dan struggled in the man’s arms. 

The officer held him tighter. “If you run in there now you’ll just add more fuel to the fire and probably get yourself into trouble, alright? We’re gonna help your friend.”

So he stood there and watched the officers tackle Phil’s assailant to the ground. And when the man’s head bounced off the floor with the force of it, Dan had zero pity. 

 

On the liveshow, Dan continued. “He’s been checked into the hospital and the motherfucker who did it is being dealt with so...here’s Phil.”

Dan sat the computer onto the table and Phil game into view. 

“Hi guys!” He said, overly cheery to try to calm down his audience. “So I guess my bad luck with people keeps growing. Only me, right?”

The chat was going a mile a minute. Everyone was responding with shock, horror and anger. 

Then they almost screamed collectively in the chat “WHAT HAPPENED!!!” 

Phil sighed. “Well I tried to intervene in an argument on the bus and ended up getting into a fight.” 

“That’s fucking bullshit!”

“Dan! That’s what happened!”

Dan leaned more into frame. 

“That’s what happened, but not nearly all of it. Don’t let Phil try to convince you that this isn’t a big deal. It’s a big fucking deal. We walked into the train and found some musclebound rapey freak cornering some poor woman and harassing her. She was fucking terrified and wanted to be left alone and he just..wouldn’t...fucking do it.”

Phil shook his head. “It was...” he sighed. Deflect and distract. He wanted to deflect and distract.

But he confronted. 

“It was horrible. If Dan and I could tell she was uncomfortable and someone right beside her couldn’t...”

“It wasn’t that he couldn’t tell” Dan interjected, “It’s that he didn’t fucking care. Self entitled prick.”

“And we decided that we needed to do something.”

Dan let out a little chuckle at that. “Phil’s never been into confrontation. I think it’s a social anxiety thing. He doesn’t want to cause trouble or make waves but today just happened to be the day he decided to change that. Gonna tell us why?”

Phil shrugged. “I’m tired of not making waves. I’ve always tried to be positive and a relaxing antidote to some of the bad things that happen. But lately I’ve been wondering if that’s enough. If maybe not talking about issues because you want to distract from them could be seen as just not caring. I want to make sure people know that I care.”

“I was about to lose my shit too. Fucker was stroking her damn thigh! In public after she had refused him twice! Honestly I should be thanking God that today was the day that Phil wanted to take the lead on something like this. If it were me, I’d probably be way more banged up.”

Phil chirped in, “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen Dan in full righteous fury mode. His whole body kind of shakes with anger energy and you know that energy has to go somewhere.” He laughed. “I actually thought me being a calmer person would help deescalate things. Apparently not and I got on a fight in a bus.”

“No you were fucking sucker punched by a roided out disgusting piece of shit who probably couldn’t get a blow up doll to fuck him.” Then he turned to the computer, “Phil had no fucking chance. I went off to find authorities and when I came back he was on the floor and this bastard was kicking him. Should have known he wouldn’t have understood a fair fight, probably can’t take someone his own size.”

Phil turned the computer to face him more clearly. “Dan’s exaggerating. We went to the doctor and the injuries aren’t that bad. I’ve got some pain pills and in about a month I should be about back to normal. Though you guys will have to get used to the bruises for a while.”

“I’m not exaggerating. When we got to the hospital his eye was bleeding! This son of a bitch made him cry blood!”

Phil turned to him. “Don’t scare them.” Then he was back to the computer. “All eye injuries are probably just as scary. I’m not in any pain right now and the woman he was harassing was able to go home safely. I mean...I wish that could have happened without the repeated punching, but here we are.”

Dan sighed and leaned back into the sofa. Confronting the pain and evil in the world wore him out. “Just thinking of all the people out there who act just like he did. Thinking that you can just treat someone like that and not care what they want! How...just fucking how does that happen?”

Phil leaned into Dan slightly. His head was spinning a bit. The glare from the computer was making him a bit dizzy and he was thinking it was almost the time for another pain pill.

“Guys, I’m feeling a bit run down now so I think we might cut this short. But I feel like I should say something.”

Dan nodded at him off screen, catching on, at least a little, to what might be happening.

“I’m not very good at this. I don’t make huge statements on social issues because I’ve never really felt it was necessary. I’ve always assumed that you guys know how I think and feel and...I think that might not always work anymore. “

“So I’m gonna say this, right now. Completely loud and clear. No isn’t just a word. It’s a full sentence. If someone says ‘no’ to something then that’s the end of whatever you wanted from them. It’s not playing hard to get, it’s not being coy, it’s rejection. And I don’t care how much you like this person, or how much you want to be with them, if they say no, then you have to accept it. 

And if you’re someone who can’t accept it. If you don’t understand consent or just don’t care about it, then you are complete garbage. Rejection is scary but it’s not justification for being human compost.” 

Phil looked off camera to see Dan beaming at him. He sighed and continued.

“I hate confrontation. I don’t want to make someone angry or annoyed. I don’t want to make large statements and try to be a part of movements. I don’t want to be the face of big social fights. But I’m starting to feel that sometimes I need to at least say something. Now this isn’t going to change my videos that much. I’m just going to occasionally be more outspoken about things, more upfront about all the things that are happening in the world that are just not OK.”

“But I also like my videos being a distraction. A safe and positive place away from negativity. So that’s going to continue. Just...sometimes you should be a little confrontational, at least every so often.”

Dan came back on camera. “Well if that isn’t a line to wrap things up on, I don’t know what is. Bye guys, be ready for bruised faced Phil in the next gaming channel video.”

“Can I even play video games with only 1 fully functioning eye?”

Dan laughed, “Now you’ll have a reason for being so shit.”

“Hey!”

They both laughed and waved goodbye to their followers. 

Dan disconnected the livestream and set the computer down. He looked at Phil for a few moments without saying anything and then said, “I’m proud of you, you know?”

Phil shrugged. “I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t have done.”

“Yeah but, this kind of thing really scares you. And you did it anyway, to help someone who couldn’t help themselves. That’s courage.”

Phil laughed to himself. “Courage to get my face punched in.”

Dan took his hand and gave him a look so earnest that Phil felt himself blushing. “Courage to risk your own safety for that of someone else. And whenever I look at those bruises I see someone who stood up for something important. It’s kind of sexy.”

Phil looked at him in confusion. “You think my bruises are sexy? Is this some kind of sadistic thing?”

Dan leaned in and kissed Phil on the lips. He licked at Phil’s bottom lip and a sharp of pain jolted through his body and he hissed. Dan pulled away. 

“Sorry. And that’s not what’s sexy.”

“What is it then?”

Dan leaned in and placed a few kisses on the few places on Phil’s face that weren’t bruised. And then he placed a few more onto his neck for good measure. 

“Morals. Your morals are such a turn on.” Then he flinched. “Is that weird? I just...You seem so much bigger in my mind. I’m so overwhelmed by feelings of love and pride and..seeing you stand up for someone and be strong? It’s probably one of the sexiest things I’ve seen.”

Phil thought about that for a bit and then said, “So if I were to.. I don’t know, tell you what I think about the silliness of gender roles and how we look down on men expressing emotion...

Dan bit his own lip playfully. “I just might have to jump you.” 

“Noted. Now I have a new motivation for this whole confrontation thing. Not that doing the right thing isn’t motivation enough.” He hurried to say that last bit, because doing the right thing was his prime motivation.

“But,” Dan said, giving him a wink, “You enjoy rewards in life.”


End file.
